THE HULL MUSEUM AND EDUCATION. 211 



those days being that the collections should be of the 

 character referred to. To-day, however, an effort is being 

 made to change the old order of things, and in the present 

 municipal museum " Education " is the watchword, and 

 the specimens are exhibited labelled, arranged, and classified 

 with a view to conveying as much instructive information 

 as possible. 



As to the value of museums as educational institutions 

 there can be no question, particularly if they are arranged 

 on modern lines and are not of the chamber of horrors' 

 type, formerly so prevalent throughout the country. 

 Unfortunately, to the average individual, a museum means 

 a collection of deformities, monstrosities, and curios from 

 every and any quarter of the globe ; and, to some, there is 

 no doubt that an eight-legged lamb or a murderer's knife 

 excites more interest than any other sort of exhibit. Objects 

 of the morbid type can only have a depraving effect and are 

 certainly out of place in an educational museum. 



A modern museum is of a totally different character. 

 All the specimens are classified and arranged and labelled 

 in their proper scientific and historical order, and any 

 addition to the collection has its one proper position in the 

 general series, and unless it is in its place it does not fulfil 

 its proper mission. Visitors to museums would derive far 

 more benefit from a knowledge of this, than by endeavouring 

 to gather together scattered fragments of information by 

 walking aimlessly from one part of the building to another. 



To illustrate this, reference might be made, for example, 

 to the case in the Hull Museum containing pre-historic 

 remains. This is placed at the south end of the room 

 devoted to antiquities, and contains implements and objects 

 of stone, bone, bronze and iron, arranged in such a way, 

 as to form a key to the early history of the Britons. For 

 instance, at one end of the case are relics of the Palaeolithic 

 or Old-Stone- Age Man, the earliest human occupants of these 

 islands. These implements are of a very primitive and rude 

 character. A little further in the case are many fine axes, 

 spears, arrow-heads, &c, of the Neolithic or New-Stone-Age 

 Man. A comparison of these two reveals in a moment the 

 great advance in the art of manufacturing implements by 

 the New-Stone- Age Man. A little further and we have 

 the axes, swords, spears, and other relics of the Bronze 

 Age. The introduction of this metal into Britain had a 

 wonderful influence upon the arts and upon the civilisation 

 of the Britons. After bronze was the introduction of iron, 



